Man revived after collapse at Dunwoody gym

DUNWOODY, Ga. — A personal trainer, a health club member and a police officer all happened to be in the right place at the right time to save a man having a heart attack while he worked out.

The Workout Anytime member has been lifting weights at the gym for a number of years. The staff told Channel 2's Jeff Dore he's in his early 60s and is very fit.

While working out Thursday, though, the man collapsed. As luck would have it, his personal trainer, Vaibhav Maurya, is a medical doctor who gave up pediatrics three years ago to be a fitness coach.

"He had no pulse and his respirations were very irregular. He stopped breathing. He turned purple," Maurya said.

And then people started taking on just the right roles.

At the front desk, Justin Allen called 911 and hit a panic button.

In the middle of the free weights and fitness machines, another club member with EMT training started doing chest compressions.

Maurya started mouth-to-mouth.

"(He) gave a couple of assisted breaths, did some compressions. He would come back for a second or two and then would go out again," Maurya said.

Fortunately, the man was in Dunwoody, where every police car carries a defibrillator and a trained officer.

Officer Tedesco hooked it up. But one shock didn't do it.

Tedesco's colleague, Officer Tim Fecht, said all three men kept trying.

"After the second shock, they were able to get a pulse and bring him back to life," Fecht said.

Alli Taylor, the manager of Workout Anytime, used to be a cardiac nurse, and praised them all.

"They knew what to do, they didn't panic, they worked together," said Taylor.

The gym member, whose name hasn't been released, is alive and doing well in the hospital.

WSBTV